This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through January 24)
Every week, we scour the web for important, insightful, and fascinating stories in science and technology.
Image Credit
JWST image of the Helix Nebula / Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
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ROBOTICS
Your First Humanoid Robot Coworker Will Probably Be ChineseWill Knight | Wired ($)
"[In addition to Unitree] a staggering 200-plus other Chinese companies are also developing humanoids, which recently prompted the Chinese government to warn of overcapacity and unnecessary replication. The US has about 16 prominent firms building humanoids. With stats like that, one can’t help but suspect that the first country to have a million humanoids will be China."
FUTURE
CEOs Say AI Is Making Work More Efficient. Employees Tell a Different Story.Lindsay Ellis | The Wall Street Journal ($)
"The gulf between senior executives’ and workers’ actual experience with generative AI is vast, according to a new survey from the AI consulting firm Section of 5,000 white-collar workers. Two-thirds of nonmanagement staffers said they saved less than two hours a week or no time at all with AI. More than 40% of executives, in contrast, said the technology saved them more than eight hours of work a week."
BIOTECH
mRNA Cancer Vaccine Shows Protection at 5-Year Follow-Up, Moderna and Merck SayBeth Mole | Ars Technica
"In a small clinical trial, customized mRNA vaccines against high-risk skin cancers appeared to reduce the risk of cancer recurrence and death by nearly 50 percent over five years when compared with standard treatment alone."
Computing
Not to Be Outdone by OpenAI, Apple Is Reportedly Developing an AI WearableLucas Ropek | TechCrunch
"Apple may be developing its own AI wearable, according to a report published Wednesday by The Information. The device will be a pin that users can wear on their clothing, and that comes equipped with two cameras and three microphones, the report says."
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
The Math on AI Agents Doesn’t Add UpSteven Levy | Wired ($)
"The big AI companies promised us that 2025 would be 'the year of the AI agents.' It turned out to be the year of talking about AI agents, and kicking the can for that transformational moment to 2026 or maybe later. But what if the answer to the question 'When will our lives be fully automated by generative AI robots that perform our tasks for us and basically run the world?' is, like that New Yorker cartoon, 'How about never?'"
SPACE
Extreme Closeup of the ‘Eye of God’ Reveals Fiery Pillars in Stunning DetailPassant Rabie | Gizmodo
"The Webb space telescope has stared deep into the darkness of the Helix Nebula [nicknamed the Eye of God], revealing layers of gas shed by a dying star to seed the cosmos with future generations of stars and planets. ...At its center is a blazing white dwarf—the leftover core of a dying star—releasing an avalanche of material that crashes into a colder surrounding shell of gas and dust."
ENERGY
China’s Renewable Energy Revolution Is a Huge Mess That Might Save the WorldJeremy Wallace | Wired ($)
"The resulting, onrushing utopia is anything but neat. It is a panorama of coal communities decimated, price wars sweeping across one market after another, and electrical grids destabilizing as they become more central to the energy system. And absolutely no one—least of all some monolithic 'China' at the control switch—knows how to deal with its repercussions."
ENERGY
Zanskar Thinks 1 TW of Geothermal Power Is Being OverlookedTim De Chant | TechCrunch
"'They underestimated how many undiscovered systems there are, maybe by an order of magnitude or more,' Hoiland said. With modern drilling techniques, 'you can get a lot more out of each of them, maybe even an order of magnitude or more from each of those. All of a sudden the number goes from tens of gigawatts to what could be a terawatt-scale opportunity.'"
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BIOTECH
Some Immune Systems Defeat Cancer. Could That Become a Drug?Gina Kolata | The New York Times ($)
"Dr. Edward Patz, who spent much of his career researching cancer at Duke, has long been intrigued by cancers that are harmless and has thought they might hold important clues for drug development. The result, after years of research, is an experimental drug, tested so far only in small numbers of lung cancer patients."
SPACE
Another Jeff Bezos Company Has Announced Plans to Develop a MegaconstellationEric Berger | Ars Technica
"The space company founded by Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin, said it was developing a new megaconstellation named TeraWave to deliver data speeds of up to 6Tbps anywhere on Earth. The constellation will consist of 5,408 optically interconnected satellites, with a majority in low-Earth orbit and the remainder in medium-Earth orbit."
ROBOTICS
Waymo Continues Robotaxi Ramp up With Miami Service Now Open to PublicKirsten Korosec | TechCrunch
"The company said Thursday it will initially open the service, on a rolling basis, to the nearly 10,000 local residents on its waitlist. Once accepted, riders will be able to hail a robotaxi within a 60-square-mile service area in Miami that covers neighborhoods such as the Design District, Wynwood, Brickell, and Coral Gables."
SPACE
Mars Once Had a Vast Sea the Size of the Arctic OceanTaylor Mitchell Brown | New Scientist ($)
"This would have been the largest ocean on Mars. 'Our research suggests that around 3 billion years ago, Mars may have hosted long-lasting bodies of surface water inside Valles Marineris, the largest canyon in the Solar System,' says Indi. 'Even more exciting, these water bodies may have been connected to a much larger ocean that once covered parts of Mars’ northern lowlands.'"
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